Investment in health research too low – poll

Three quarters of New Zealanders
believe that the government’s $125m budget for health and
medical research - which was 0.75% of health care costs - is
too low, according to the latest New Zealanders for Health
Research (NZHR) opinion poll.

The poll of more than
500 Kiwis was conducted in early May 2019 by Roy Morgan for
NZHR – New Zealand’s peak body representing the entire
health and medical research pipeline.

“NZHR has
recommended that the government adopts a 10-year investment
target of 2.4 percent of health care costs. Although the
allocation had increased to $143 million in the 2019/20
budget, this still represented only 0.78% of health care
costs” said NZHR Chief Executive Chris Higgins

“In any case, the 2019/20 budget stipulates no further
increases for the next four years, and we’re forecasting
that the level of investment will fall to 0.6% by 2025. This
is very disappointing and flies in the face of the
government’s own overall R&D ten-year target of 2.0%”
said Higgins. “It means that New Zealanders stand to miss
out on opportunities to benefit from the best possible
healthcare”

“With a general election set to take
place in 2020 this would be a good time for all political
parties to take notice of the poll results and ensure that
their election manifestos include real commitments to
increasing public health R&D investment”

In other
poll results 85% said that it was important to do research
into antibiotic resistance to infectious diseases, and 83%
said it was important to do research to make our health
system more effective and efficient.

Although only
43% said that they were well informed about health and
medical research in New Zealand, over 90% agreed that
vaccinations, eating plenty of fruit and vegetables, regular
exercise and cutting down on sugary food and drinks were
safe and effective ways of keeping healthy.

A total
of 88 percent said that pharmaceutical companies should
invest more in health research, and 87 percent expressed
willingness to participate in any clinical trial of a new
medicine if they had a condition it might be able to treat.
71 percent agreed that there should be more opportunities
for New Zealanders to participate in clinical trials, with
67% agreeing that this is as important as giving blood.

NZHR is chaired by Graham Malaghan, of the
Wellington-based Malaghan Institute of Medical Research and
is supported by universities, clinical research
organisations, and organisations representing both the
philanthropic and pharmaceutical industry
sectors.

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